Benjamin's Hope bursting with spring activity

Monday

Apr 14, 2014 at 7:03 AM

By Andrea.Goodell@HollandSentinel.com(616) 546-4275

“Everything is ‘spring,'” jokes Executive Director Krista Mason as she strolls through the Benjamin’s Hope campus.From that sunny drive, she can see where a "sidekick" (an employee there to help residents) builds raised beds for a new sensory garden, a 60- by 80-foot swatch of land awaits blueberry bushes, a natural playscape is being planned and a roadside stand for fruit and vegetables will be built — all this spring.The time is now, and the Riley Street campus in Park Township is buzzing with activity.New statistics released late last month by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control show 1 in 68 children are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. In 2000, that number was 1 in 150. Benjamin’s Hope began several years ago as Mason’s vision for her son, Benjamin, who has autism. It is becoming a place for those with and without developmental disabilities to gather.Worship at “The Gathering, 2 p.m. Sundays, began in October. The public is welcome to attend the church plant supported jointly by the Christian Reformed Church and the Reformed Church in America, Mason said.“On Sunday, it’s the craziest, wildest services anywhere,” she said.The first three of six planned homes are filled with four residents each, and there’s a waiting list. Heather Lawrence loves to show off her apartment.“She’s the tour guide,” Mason said as Lawrence shouted with excitement.On one of the first warm days of spring, many of the 12 residents at Benjamin’s Hope were doing exactly what everyone else who was wondering if spring would ever arrive — being outside, enjoying it.Friday afternoon, with a little help from a sidekick and Mason, they hunted for Easter eggs.“There’s some over here, guys,” Mason beckoned. “I think there’s some over here.”In less than a week, Lucas VandeKolk has logged 31.4 miles tooling around campus on his bike. Brett Wesselink, master of the 3-point shot, couldn’t get enough of showing off his basketball prowess as he shot hoops with a sidekick.“I’m a rock star at long shots!” Wesselink shouted.The debt-free public-private partnership serves residents from Ottawa, Allegan, Kent and Jackson counties now, but it is open to applicants from around the world.They take care of the farm’s alpacas, rabbits and goats. Chickens are coming — this spring. A sensory garden being put in now will allow residents to grow their own flowers and vegetables.Those living at Benjamin’s Hope will probably consume much of the produce, but what they don’t eat, they can sell at a roadside stand soon to be under construction. The garden is meant to be walked through and enjoyed. The sensory garden and playground are another way to invite the community at large, Mason said.The nonprofit is partnering with Outdoor Discover Center to design the neighboring natural playscape.Joy Funk, an interpretive naturalist at ODC, is designing the natural play area that could include balance beams, forts, stumps for climbing, an imagination building area, sensory play wall and sand box. It’s all in the vein of unstructured play, she said.There will also be swings.“Swings are really more structured than we usually do,” Funk said, “but I know a lot of the residents out there like to swing.”Volunteers will build it as soon as enough logs and stumps can be found, Mason said.Construction has also begun on the fourth house at Benjamin’s Hope and the foundation has been dug for a fifth house. Those will be open to residents in the fall. One is being funded by a $500,000 grant from the Federal Home Bank of Indianapolis.“We don’t build anything until we have enough to complete it,” Mason said.It will take another $3 million to build everything, including a sixth house and a community center, she said. There, vocational training will be on tap for residents and community members.The Benjamin’s Hope board of directors also envisions the community center as a communication center — a place to research high-tech and low-tech ways to help nonverbal children and adults with autism to communicate.When Mason thinks of the residents at Benjamin’s Hope who don’t use verbal communication (about half those with autism are nonverbal), she sees a puzzle to solve.“I look at that as ‘well, we just haven’t found the right tool yet,’” she said.A clinical director will join the staff in July.— Follow this reporter on Facebook and on Twitter, @SentinelAndrea.